Michael A. De Leon is a graphic designer by day, but wears many hats in his off time. In 2004, after several years of covering the Spurs, he started Project Spurs, a Spurs team fansite as an outlet to provide content to Spurs fans, while continuing to write for himself and learning the ins and outs of online publishing and web design. He has since built a writing team and started a popular weekly Spurs podcast called the Spurscast.

Note: This is an mySA.com City Brights Blog. These blogs are not written or edited by mySA or the San Antonio Express-News. The authors are solely responsible for the content.

How will the Duncan era end?

Tim Duncan has accomplished everything there is to accomplish in his illustrious 12 year career. At the time of this article, including playoffs, he’s played 40,755 minutes, scored 23,708 points and collected 12,975 rebounds, all in a Silver and Black jersey.

Obviously these numbers have increased but there’s no argument that Duncan has given all his blood, sweat and tears to the franchise. But, as the saying goes, all great things must come to an end, and soon the Duncan era will come to an end.

So how will the Duncan era end? Will it end like the Robinson era? Hoisting the Larry O’Bryant trophy in the sky, showers of confetti raining down on the court. At that time, no Spur had meant more to San Antonio then David. Because of him, two things come to mind when you think of San Antonio: the Alamo and the Spurs. It was incredibly emotional to see David in his last moments as a Spur. I’d wouldn’t be honest if I said I didn’t cry. I think most of us did. How could you not? To see the Admiral go out on top, the person I most admired growing up, my hero, was an unforgettable moment in my life.

But will Duncan and his four championships simply ride off into the sunset headed for Springfield? He’s still averaging a double-double with 19 points and 10.8 rebounds a game. And at 33-years-old, Duncan is still schooling younger players. But the Spurs are struggling, and with players like Dwight Howard, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony playing the best basketball of their careers, not to mention the Lakers and Mavericks adding pieces to their rosters that will keep them in contention for years, it seems Duncan might not make it back to the promise land.

The Spurs have shown they are willing to do what is necessary to surround Duncan with pieces he needs to get another title by acquiring Richard Jefferson and his 29.4 million dollar contract. Even though the acquisition of Jefferson hasn’t panned out like we anticipated, the move by R.C. Buford shows the Spurs believe Duncan still has enough left in the tank to bring one more chip to the Alamo City.

However, taking on Jefferson’s huge contract has made it seemingly difficult to sign an All-Star caliber big man that can take the torch from Duncan and carry the Spurs into the future. But Buford and the Spurs front office are one of the best in the league. So if this season doesn’t end with a parade, don’t count out next season.